Post by ergosum on Jan 19, 2009 18:20:28 GMT -5
I have recently purchased and am burning in an XPA-2 with an RSP-2 driving a pair of Magnepan 1.6QRs. Front end is a Music Hall 25.2 cdp, a Music Hall MMF 2.1 turntable (soon to be replaced with a Rega p3-24) and a well-seasoned Adcom tuner. I also route the two front channels of my HT rig (Pioneer Elite VSX-94) through the aux input on the RSP-2. So, in sum, not a super high dollar set, but . . .
Still allowing everything to settle in, but the XPA-2 driving the maggies? Oh my. I will eschew the use of audio review prose here and simply say that when I put on a record and turn up the volume, I lose the ability to do anything but listen. I do not mean to imply that this is the pinnacle of music reproduction by any means, but the sound is as present and seductive as anything that I have heard.
The one semi-technical observation: The Emo amp really supports the low end on the maggies. The knock on Maggies in general is that they lack punch through the lower octaves. With the XPA-2, bass is clean and involving way down. It may not completely communicate the sound of an orchestral tympani, but I can hear the bass player's fingerprints.
Finally: a general observation about "open forum" internet reviews. While end-user reviews of a product are bound to be helpful, they are pulled to extremes, especially in the realm of budget or "mid-fi" gear. On one hand, new purchasers (like myself) are certainly disposed to say nice things about the gear we just spent too much money on in order to validate said purchase in our own minds, thus resulting in some bias to the positive. On the opposite end, in what will heretofor be known as ergosum's law, where Vi is the level of vitriol, and Va is the value proposition in a given component (i.e., the professionally reviewed quality divided by the price), then Vi=kVa. In other words, the intensity of negative reviews is directly porportional to a component's perceived quality, and thus can produce a bias toward the negative.
The net affect is to skew online review toward the unfairly negative and the undeservedly positive. Not a solution, just a thought.
Can't write any more. Just put Joni Mitchell's Blue on the 'table.
Still allowing everything to settle in, but the XPA-2 driving the maggies? Oh my. I will eschew the use of audio review prose here and simply say that when I put on a record and turn up the volume, I lose the ability to do anything but listen. I do not mean to imply that this is the pinnacle of music reproduction by any means, but the sound is as present and seductive as anything that I have heard.
The one semi-technical observation: The Emo amp really supports the low end on the maggies. The knock on Maggies in general is that they lack punch through the lower octaves. With the XPA-2, bass is clean and involving way down. It may not completely communicate the sound of an orchestral tympani, but I can hear the bass player's fingerprints.
Finally: a general observation about "open forum" internet reviews. While end-user reviews of a product are bound to be helpful, they are pulled to extremes, especially in the realm of budget or "mid-fi" gear. On one hand, new purchasers (like myself) are certainly disposed to say nice things about the gear we just spent too much money on in order to validate said purchase in our own minds, thus resulting in some bias to the positive. On the opposite end, in what will heretofor be known as ergosum's law, where Vi is the level of vitriol, and Va is the value proposition in a given component (i.e., the professionally reviewed quality divided by the price), then Vi=kVa. In other words, the intensity of negative reviews is directly porportional to a component's perceived quality, and thus can produce a bias toward the negative.
The net affect is to skew online review toward the unfairly negative and the undeservedly positive. Not a solution, just a thought.
Can't write any more. Just put Joni Mitchell's Blue on the 'table.
lol
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